The Scare of my Academic Career

As with every career, especially those which you are going to see the end of the project, there are usually some "excitement". Mine is no different.

Just in the last few days, there was an active discussion among those in the community about how postgrads have "displacement activities" as Alvin calls it. Most were to describe how different individuals would be extremely productive in all other aspects of their lives EXCEPT for that ONE thing they had to do, that is their thesis! ha ha ha

Today, I noticed that my main harddisk space is dropping very quickly (HD is partitioned for Applications and another for DaTa). So I happily backedup my photos, music etc, deleted those music files that I hardly listen to.

NEVER for ONE single moment did I actually think of backingup my OWN research data which I've been working on for the past few years.... (my last backup was 1month back). I'm not sure why I'm so careless!

After happily deleting most of the files, I started to work on some of my data until 2pm when hunger pangs took control over my body, I had to run some errands during lunch, so I put Peppermint to sleep and went off.

When I returned, I was shocked beyond words.... imagine if someone just took away 4yrs of your research, analysis without your knowledge, you did not even get to say goodbye....

I have absolutely NO idea where my DaTA drive went!????

*panic*

(quickly open my trash bin... nope, I have diligently emptied my trash as well)

*more panic*

I recall Jr saying that these data are never really "deleted" off your machines, they just get over-written.

Ad is in KL on his way to a meeting... what do I do? I cant possibly wait till 11pm! I called Jr, hanged on to the foreign sounding ringtone.... I guess he's overseas as well, but he's my BEST BEST bet at recovering anything....

Thankfully, Jr picked up my call and Thank God that he was quick-minded to give me some VERY useful instructions in VERY simple steps in addition to his assurances.

OK, here are the steps, just in case anyone needs them, (but pls do YOUR backUP NOW!)

1. shutdown the computer
2. unplug power cable from machine
3. remove battery from machine
4. Do NOT do anything at all to the machine until....

a. you find another Mac (Jr calls it the Happy Mac)
b. download the trial version of SubRosaSoft
(use the trial copy first to check if its "powerful" enough to see the documents that you want to recover before you pay for it)
alternatively, you can use Virtual Mac Lab or Boomerang Data Recovery
(Jr was the BEST, he gave these links to me within mins of my panic phone call, kept me on the line to ensure that I got the steps right...)
c. Close all software on the Happy Mac and just open the data recovery software
d. ensure that both Macs (Peppermint was Sad Mac for a while...) are plugged in with power (so reassemble Sad Mac withOUT turning the power on) If either one runs out of juice during the recovery, it'll be total failure!
e. Find a firewire cable and connect Sad Mac to Happy Mac
f. Power your Sad Mac while holding on to the "T" on the keyboard until you see the Firewire Logo flashing on your Sad Mac's blue background
g. Recovery software will be able to "see" the files that you might have lost on Sad Mac, so copy them out to an external harddisk or to Happy Mac first
h. leave both Happy & Sad Macs alone to do their stuff - to take a pee/coffee break
i. JUMP up and Down in joy if you can "see" & recover ALL your files, if not, try another software.

I got lucky, I could see my Data Drive on Peppermint without the recovery software's assistance.

YEP, I backed up and backed up and backed up like mad.

And after the backing up exercise, I had to sit around to physically, emotionally recover from the shock, when that wasnt enough, I headed out for Retail Therapy to "remove the cache" from my system... ha ha ha

I must admit I got a pretty nice dress :P

Once again, thank you to Jr for his calm, collected assistance and patience, he makes a great instructor in a crisis anytime.

(some of you might be wondering hey where's Ad in all this action? later I found out that the sms never got to him... *sigh*)